The five points brought up by James Murray are very important and valid points where point 5) The rewards for those who defuse the "carbon bomb" will be massive echos the existence of WWF Climate Solvers. Because we believe and even know that some solutions, entrepreneurs and companies must grow very, very fast for us to have a chance to combat climate change. This is why we must focus on enabling this rapid commercialisation, at early as well as later stages of cleantech business development.

What is also worrying in this context though is that the lack of ambition on climate change is starting to take it's toll also on the cleantech industry where several players that could reap massive rewards are being forced to cave in due to lack of policy and investor confidence. The public private partnership machinery to support solutions is failing to deliver at scale. Policy makers and investors must engage in a dialogue with those who have alternative and transformative solutions across sectors, and not stay stuck in a sector-by-sector I-will-change-as-little-and-slow-as-I-can-dialogue with incumbent industry sectors. Policy makers say business-as-usual (BAU) is not an option, yet what we see is BAU. And investors keep betting our pension funds on good old coal, oil and gas since they expect to get high returns on investments from the BAU way of thinking.

The winner of last year's Intersolar award and an earlier Climate Solver, has now gone bankrupt. The technology combines solar power generation with the use of solar heat. It is the first concentrating PVT collector where priority is given to generating heat as well as electricity. The intersolar jury believed that the solution’s technical construction generated significantly higher yields than any previous systems. Now they are bankrupt. Liquidity issues made it impossible for the award winning company to pay a supplier, and there was no investor to jump in and save the day.

Unfortunately there are several more examples, and many more to come unless policy makers and investors wake up.

If we do not join forces to support our Climate Solvers so that they can grow rather than shrink, what chance do we have ? We must step up our ambition in order to reap the rewards of those who diffuse the "carbon bomb" which could be massive. And policy makers must understand that a top priority for supporting solution providers is to increase ambition on climate change. This creates markets as well as strong industrial policy support for the new strategic industries that are necessary to create a green economy.

The Challenge is in search of market-driven solutions that can expand farmers’ and farm –related businesses’ access to clean energy solutions for improving irrigation, value-added processing, cold storage, or other on-farm applications. This will enhance the incomes and economic opportunities of the networks of small holder farmers and associated businesses along the agriculture value chain, and help build profitable clean energy companies.

The Grand Challenge Website (http://poweringag.org/) gives more information on this program. All proposals for funding must be submitted through the program’s Online Application Platform. This Platform will be accessible from January 15, 2013 – February 6, 2013. The application link is http://poweringag.org/apply. “

Dis-ownership is an urban trend that seems to be gaining traction in the US beyond the early-adaptor hipsters. Sunrun is riding this wave and has developed an innovative business model that allows homeowners to go solar without the prohibitive upfront costs.